Long weekend in Manhattan...

The Lovely Donna and I spent a long weekend in NYC, arriving on the afternoon of the 4th. We walked, shopped, saw The Boy from Oz (great), and of course, ate really well. Donna, not being totally insane like me, only wanted to eat two or three meals a day, but it was enough. I'm not wasting away yet.

Highlights of the trip:

Dinner at Daniel (60 E. 65th) was more than a few notches above a recent celebratory meal at Chicago's Les Nomades, marred only by a slightly heavy hand on the salt on both Donna's Goujonettes of Dover Sole with fricasee of morels, asparagus and Bearnaise sauce, and my Skate stuffed with chanterelle mushroom duxelle and Bordelaise sauce. Squab and foie gras terrines were both heavenly, as were the desserts, which are followed by warm from the oven madelaines, and then the superb selection of mignardises. The meal began with four types of amuse, served from a silver three tier compotier, cured salmon, a cheese crisp filled witha goat cheese/herb mousse, roasted eggplant, and a Gougere of Gruyere cheese. Desserts were outstanding as well. Four breads passed, including a rustic potato rosemary focaccia.

Lombardi's Coal Oven: This is a great pizza with not only the perfect balance of dough and toppings, but the perfect yeasty dough with char flavor from the oven. My only regret is that we didn't go back for a clam pie. Maybe twenty tables. Forty five minute wait at two o'clock on a Monday afternoon.

Katz's Delicatessen: what can you say about the hand sliced pastrami and brisket sandwiches that hasn't been said a thousand times? But we both hated the hot dog. Walked over to Yonah Schimmel's for a kasha knish for dessert. Totally forgettable.

Oriental Garden: (Chinatown). Live grouper, prawns, lobster, dungeness and king crabs in tanks built into the wall. We had salt and pepper prawns, razor clams in black bean sauce. scallop in the shell with XO sauce and bean thread noodle, crispy soft shell crab with garlic, as well as water spinach with fermented bean curd. Came to about $95 including $1.25 each for two bowls of rice

Barney Greengrass: I now understand all the fuss over smoked sturgeon. Hot smoked, but moist and buttery at the same time. The belly lox was more velvety but lacked the heavy salt punch that I remember. Cokes in 7 oz. bottles. Smoked whitefish salad unremarkable.

Balthazar: Great breads. Extremely busy and also cramped. Good food, but better here at Le Sardine in my opinion.

Fererra Bakery in Little Italy: good lemon granite, but the mini pastries from the showcase were a little tired.

Ollies: A chain of Chinese restaurants/noodle shop/grills which operates from 6:00a.m. to midnight where you can get a good bowl of wonton noodle soup for $3.25 or a full meal including dim sum. The one we went to was two blocks north of Lincoln Center on Broadway. It must rock before and after concerts.

And my favorite: The street cart at 45th and 5th, where a former Russian Tea Room chef, an Egyptian, sells marinated lamb kebeb sandwiches on pita. Unfortunately Donna only got one bite. Shame on me!

And don't forget the always dependable Cosmic Diner at 58th and Broadway, which is always good for eggs and a bialy.

Missed the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station this time around. Hope to hit it next time.

The new Whole Foods store in the basement of the Time Warner certer is pretty spectacular with wood burning oven pizza station, charcuterie, sushi bar, Asian, Indian, and Comfort food buffets for by the lb. purchases, and more, but lacked the cachet of a live pianist with grand piano, which could be found at Simon David stores in Dallas, back when Ronnie Reagan had his convention in '84. (At Jamails in Houston, you didn't have to touch your fruit and vegetables in the produce dept, an attendant bagged up your bananas for you.)

Unfortunately, our return flight home was delayed for several hours and we missed the GWiv birthday event at LTH.

Following Evil's lead, I wanted to post some notes from a short trip to New York that Thor's Personal Assistant and I made over the 4th of July weekend.

As some of you know, I grew up on Long Island. July 4th is my parent's wedding anniversary, this year their 45th. We flew into LaGuardia on Thursday, left Thor with his grandparents and headed into Manhattan for the day on Friday.

First stop at around 10:30 was to get a black and white cookie in Midtown. Nowhere special, just a garden variety Manhattan deli. The cookie tasted exactly as it should: cakey with a hint of lemon.

At 11:30, we had lunch at Artisanal. We split the tuna tartare, then TPA had the macaroni and cheese and I the cheese plate (when in Rome!). The cheese plate had Shropshire Blue, a Corsican sheeps milk cheese and a third that I cannot recall. The plate also included some fig bread, membrillo and dried and fresh fruit. Wonderful. The real star, however, was TPA's selection. Served in an individual copper gratin, the macaroni cheese was tangy, salty and gooey. So far from the blue box, it's ridiculous. TPA gives me a piece of copper cookware for each special occasion. I think I know what I'm getting next. The meal ended with tiny eclairs provided gratis. I really was only going to have one bite . . .

We next headed up to Nach Waxman's Kitchen Arts and letters at Lexington and 93rd. I had heard of this place long ago, but never been. I was really surprised at how small the shop was. Nevertheless, as the saying goes, good things come in small packages. Picked up Fergus Henderson's book and Gordon Ramsay's newest for myself and a small ice cream cookbook for a friend.

Walking off lunch, we made our way to the Plaza for a nice Sancerre at the bar.

Next to Fauchon for a box of macaroons, pistachio, chocolate, coffee and passion fruit. The pistachio was my favorite

Mid-afternoon snack, like Evil, we went to Lombardi's for pizza. Described well by Evil, I would only add that the sausage was fantastic, flecked with fennel, slightly sweet, slightly hot. I loved it, but it was not the pizza that I grew up on the cheesy, slightly leathery crust that you fold over, wonderful nonetheless.

Now dinner was the only false note of the day. Uncharacteristic of me, I didn't plan the trip that far in advance, so I had failed to make a dinner reservation. As a result, we decided to go to Pearl Oyster Bar in Greenwich Village, which does not take reservations. Now ordinarily, I do not stand on line for a restaurant, but we arrived a half hour before, we were the third table on line and it was a nice night. We were seated promptly on their opening and ordered two glasses of wine, a dozen oysters, smoked salmon on corn cakes, scallops and lobster roll. Almost instantaneously, a plate of oysters was placed in front of us, but no horseradish. The waiter asked if we wanted some - yes we do. We waited and waited and waited, had an oyster, then another and another. Finally, the horseradish arrived just in time to eat the last two. At this time we ordered a bottle of wine. The entrees arrived. The scallops were sweet and nutty, but perhaps a bit overdone. The lobster roll, Pearl's specialty, was fantastic. We finished, plates are cleared, and the waiter asks whether we would like dessert. As we had another stop in our plans, we declined. At this point, the bottle is about half full. A few minutes later, the waiter returns to ask us whether we would prefer to simply pay for the second glass as opposed to the bottle. A bit taken aback, we acquiesced. Now mind you, we have been sitting at the table for which we waited a half hour for forty-five minutes. He didn't get a very good tip.

Last stop, Cones, also in the Village, for ice cream. I had the pistachio, TPA the strawberry sorbet and yogurt sorbet. Very fine ice cream.

By 11:00pm, we were back on the LIRR stuffed and happy.

Evil Ronnie wrote:Oriental Garden: (Chinatown). Live grouper, prawns, lobster, dungeness and king crabs in tanks built into the wall. We had salt and pepper prawns, razor clams in black bean sauce. scallop in the shell with XO sauce and bean thread noodle, crispy soft shell crab with garlic, as well as water spinach with fermented bean curd. Came to about $95 including $1.25 each for two bowls of rice

was this place worthwhile to seek out?

Willie,

We had a great meal at Oriental Garden and are back in NY next week. Don't know if we'll do a repeat, probably not, but if you want stellar seafood, it's a great place.

We will, however, be back at Barney Greengrass for hand sliced lox.

Evil Ronnie wrote:
We will, however, be back at Barney Greengrass for hand sliced lox.

And don't forget about the Sturgeon King's chopped liver! Schmaltz heavy--hand chopped-chunky, not processor-smooth. Really good.

Trixie: you enjoy Barney Greengrass's chopped liver too? It is just the best thing served in any deli in NY or anywhere else.

Not to drift, but whose do you like here? I think that Chicago is an underappreciated chopped liver town (though I guess chopped liver isn't much loved anymore). The spread at Gibson's is terrific, particularly when you consider the condiments and the relatively cheap price. Then, there's the free stuff at Myron & Phil's. Hell, as VI says, it's the free stuff there that stands out. The free CL at Carson's is ok.

To my dismay, the CL at my two favorite Jewish Sammy institutions, Langer's and Manny's (not identical twins, but definitely soul brothers) is rather bad. I still get it though.

JeffB!

I'm not one to turn down a free taste of chopped liver, ala Myron and Phil's. In fact, my earliest memories of the gratis chopped liver were at a Greek style steak house in Crystal Lake, IL. What was that mysterious brown paste nestled amongst the carrots sticks, Rye-Krisps and olives? But to answer your question, I haven't really had any great chopped liver in Chicago--I've had some good but never great. Truthfully though, I haven't really been looking for it either. If it happens to be on the table along side some sour pickles, and cherry peppers, then I'm in, regardless of how good it is. Occasionally I'll pick up a decent but pricey version from Fox and Obel.

When you say that Chicago is an underappreciated chopped liver town, do you mean to say that there is a lot of great, but uneaten chopped liver, or that Chicagoans aren't chopped liver lovers? There is an (inexplicable?) shortage of great Jewish Deli's in Chicago, which could account for our lack of love. (Could anyone explain why this is?) Or maybe it's a taste that hasn't been handed down to the next generation? Have you found a prepared deli version that you like?

My biggest complaint about most restaurant/deli chopped liver is that it's too smooth--the result of making large quantities in a food processor. And also that there seems to be a shortage of carmelized onions for sweetness and hard boiled eggs for texture. After playing around with the food processor (pulsing, small batches, segregating ingredients, etc.), I decided that it is suicide for chopped liver. Hand chopping is the only way to go. There is also something cathartic too about running your knife through a big pile of carmelized chicken livers, and the annointing the mass with a healthy dose of chicken fat.

This past Passover, I made a batch for Pigmon's family. Of course, being the only goy (and an Asian one at that), my Jewish cooking is understandably met with some skepticism. But on this last outing, Pigmon's dad told me, between bites, that I was "almost there." Which to me, was a huge complement coming from man who grew up eating his mom's homemade chopped liver. It's also a testament to Barney Greengrass' version, which I was humbly trying to imitate.

trixie-pea

The Sturgeon General[quote][/quote]

While I am no lover of chopped, or any other type of liver (and I'm about as Jewish as you can get), I do use my great-grandmother's wooden bowl and metal chopper when I make gefilte fish. She used them for her chopped liver. They were inherited by my grandmother and now by my mother. My mom uses them when she makes chopped liver, but allows me to borrow them for gefilte fish making for the holidays. It's probably just my imagination, but I really feel it tastes better when made with great-grandma Gittel's cooking tools.

I know that this thread has gotten severely off topic, but yes! sdritz--I don't think it's your imagination. The alchemy of cooking is real! The gefilte fish is better! I don't know how it works, but it's real.

Evil Ronnie wrote:Willie,

We had a great meal at Oriental Garden and are back in NY next week. Don't know if we'll do a repeat, probably not, but if you want stellar seafood, it's a great place.

We will, however, be back at Barney Greengrass for hand sliced lox.

good to know, we didn't hit Oriental Garden but Nha Trang. The squid in chili sauce w/lemongrass, wow.

THANKS A TON for mentioning Barney Greengrass, had the lox and sturgeon platter w/toasted onion bagel and the small bottles of diet coke. THAT is a breakfast. Had so much energy Judi and I walked north to 110th then meandered through Central Park and all the way back to our hotel on Lexington & 39th.

We will be back to Barney's as well.

BTW, Memorial Day was one of the best times I've ever visited NYC as so many city dwellers had gone away for the weekend. The city was quite empty.

Willie

I too spent a long weekend in my hometown, and discovered a new (to me) Northern Italian gem. Il Covo Dell'Est, on 13th and Avenue A served as a remarkably good alternative to the rightly hyped but often inaccessible Babbo and Lupa.

The food's Northern Italian, and I sampled an amazingly simple, smooth asparagus soup, to-die-for homemade ravioli with sweet peas and ricotta in a sage butter sauce, and light-as-a-feather gnocchi with several different sauces (I was lucky enough to be part of a group of eight).

The atmosphere is neighborhood casual, which in this part of town means Italian accents spoken by attractive nose-ringed servers. All were very friendly. The one downside - the place was out of almost half the wine list. Oh well, that wasn't nearly enough to detract from the terrific overall experience.